Primakov, Yevgeny Maksimovich

Primakov, Yevgeny Maksimovich
▪ 1999

      Russian Pres. Boris Yeltsin's appointment of Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov as prime minister in September 1998 was greeted with a mixture of relief and skepticism. Forced to compromise on a candidate acceptable to both the impatient reformers and hard-core Communists in the Duma (the lower house of parliament), Yeltsin had tapped Primakov, many felt, for his acceptability rather than his qualifications. The idea of a former intelligence chief as prime minister rang warning bells in the West owing to Primakov's tough pro-Russian, anti-NATO, and pro-Arab positions.

      Primakov was born in Kiev, Ukrainian S.S.R., on Oct. 29, 1929. He kept his early years cloaked in secrecy and would neither confirm nor deny reports that his parents were Jewish, that his father had vanished in a Stalinist purge, and that he had changed his surname from Finkelshteyn to avoid anti-Semitic unpleasantries. He grew up with his mother in Tbilisi, Georgia. Showing a flair for the Arabic language, Primakov went to Moscow, graduating from the Institute of Oriental Studies in 1953 and receiving a candidate degree in economics from the M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University in 1956. He joined the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1959. From 1962 to 1970 Primakov worked for Pravda, the party's daily, as a Middle East specialist, columnist, and deputy editor. During this period he developed close relations with numerous influential Arab leaders.

      In 1970 Primakov was named deputy director of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO), the top foreign policy think tank, and in 1977, director of the Institute of Oriental Studies. He became director of IMEMO in 1985. A leading architect of perestroika (restructuring), he worked closely with Pres. Mikhail Gorbachev and continued to rise in the government and the Communist Party, becoming a candidate member of the Politburo in 1989. As his political standing rose, however, Primakov suffered personal setbacks, losing both his son and his first wife to heart disease in the 1980s. Serving as a special envoy, he spearheaded Gorbachev's efforts to help Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the Persian Gulf War standoff, and in the fall of 1991 he was made first deputy to the director of the State Security Committee (KGB) and head of its First Directorate (foreign intelligence). The KGB was disbanded a few months later, but Primakov went on to head its successor, the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, until Yeltsin appointed him foreign minister in 1996.

      The skepticism accompanying Primakov's confirmation as prime minister intensified to concern as Russia's economy continued spiraling downward and Primakov failed to map out a concrete economic plan. Moreover, well before the end of the year, the frequently indisposed Yeltsin had relinquished most of his day-to-day tasks to the new prime minister.

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